Career Success: Tweet #52

I’m a basketball fan. I like high school, college and pro basketball. I especially enjoy the NCAA basketball tournament – March Madness, as it’s called. In March of 2009, I did a blog post in which I told the story of tiny Siena College’s upset of Ohio State in the NCAA tournament. Part of that story is worth repeating here…

Siena is a small liberal arts college near Albany, New York. It has a total enrollment of about 3,000. Ohio State is one of the largest universities in the US. It has a total enrolment of over 60,000. I bet there are some dorms at Ohio State that have more residents than the total number of students enrolled at Siena.

None of that mattered last Friday night. Siena beat Ohio State 74 – 72. It took them two overtime periods to do it, but they did it. The Saints, as Siena’s team is called, were losing by 11 points at one point in the second half. They demonstrated the power of optimism. They refused to quit. They believed in themselves. And they won a hard-fought victory.

This is a great story in and of itself. However, Ronald Moore’s story is even better. Ronald is the Siena point guard. As the first overtime period was winding down, he found himself with the ball and Siena trailing by 3 points. At that point he was 0 for 4 in three-point shooting in the game. He shot and made a three-point basket that sent the game into a second overtime. Then he did it again! With 3.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime, and Siena losing by 1, Ronald made another three-point shot to win the game.

Ronald Moore made his last two three-point shot attempts after missing his first four. That takes some guts. He hadn’t made a three-point shot in over 44 minutes of play, yet with the game on the line, he made not one, but two, three-pointers to win the game. Talk about facing your fears and acting. Ronald demonstrated the power of optimism by his willingness to take the shots he needed to win the game. Good for him – and for Siena.

Ronald Moore demonstrated supreme self-confidence in the Siena win in the 2009 NCAA basketball tournament. He was willing to take a three-point shot in overtime when he hadn’t made one all game. If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to follow Ronald’s example. Take your best shot, even when things aren’t going well. Look your fear in the eye and act.

Ronald Moore’s and the 2009 Siena basketball team’s story is nice, but you don’t have to look for athletes to show you how to act in a self-confident manner. You can find self-confident people all around you.

I bet you know someone who is in sales. Watch him or her make several calls one day without a single sale – and then get up the next day and do it again. That’s self-confidence.

You probably know someone who is in business for himself or herself. Watch him or her go about building his or her business. That’s self-confidence.

Summer is budget time in many US corporations. If you work for one of them, you probably know some people who have to do budget presentations. Watch them as they prepare and present. That’s self-confidence.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful, self-confident people follow the advice in Tweet 52 in Success Tweets. “Identify the self-confident people you know. Pay attention to how they act and carry themselves. Watch what they do. Act like them.” Self-confident people are all around you. If you pay attention to what they do and how they act, you’ll notice that they have several things in common. They are optimistic. They believe things will turn out well. They face their fears and act. They take the shot, make the sales call, start a business, make the presentation. They surround themselves with positive people. They work with mentors. They mentor others. Follow their lead, and you’ll become self-confident too. Who are the self-confident people you know? What have you learned from them?